DWC Preview piece Kaymer leads European Tour pack

Dubai: The Dubai World Championship is the finale of a 48 tournament-long season of The European Tour, where the top 60 players in The Race to Dubai will take on the Greg Norman-designed course beginning Thursday.

Tour players compete over the course of a season and gain prize-money for their positioning over the 48 appearances. The golfer with the most cash banked at the end of the year is awarded the Harry Vardon Trophy for what was The European Tour Order of Merit — but is dubbed since 2009 as The Race to Dubai. The Trophy transforms the winning golfer into the European number one.

Winners of The Race to Dubai money list will be joining such greats as Colin Montgomerie and Seve Ballesteros to have etched their name on this prestigious trophy.

They don't necessarily have to win The Dubai World Championship, but come best over the entire season in terms of prize-winnings — a trophy for the Dubai World Championship, a silver and gold mace, exists separately.

Last year Lee Westwood achieved both feats by winning the tournament to take the series.

This year long-time series leader Martin Kaymer is challenged only by the late blooming Graeme McDowell. A total of 290,910 euros (Dh1.4 million) stands between the German and the Northern Irishman.

They are the top two from 60 of the highest ranked golfers [in order of season earnings] in the European Tour that have qualified to the Dubai World Championship.

Weekend format

The format for the weekend is as follows — round one sees everyone face each other in their current Race to Dubai pairings but in reverse order 60-59 go out first, 2-1 last.

The results from round one decides the running order for the next day and so on until the final round four. This is a 72 hole strokeplay tournament, which means the number of strokes are counted on each round. Whoever has accumulated the lowest number of strokes over the four days wins.

The $7.5 million (Dh27.5 million) is split 60 ways to go towards each player's Race to Dubai final season cash standing, while a further $7.5 million is split between the top 15 as a bonus, which has no standing on the money list.